The Half-Caste
Dinah Mulock Craik’s The Half-Caste concerns the coming-of-age of its title character, the mixed-race Zillah Le Poer, daughter of an English merchant and an Indian princess. Sent back to England as a young girl, Zillah has no knowledge that she is an heiress. She lives with her uncle Le Poer, his wife, and two daughters,…
John Halifax, Gentleman
This 1856 novel, one of the most beloved of the Victorian period, follows the life, from childhood to death, of an orphaned boy who grows to become a wealthy and powerful leader in his community. The young John Halifax is taken in by Abel Fletcher, a Quaker tanner, and forms a close friendship with Fletcher’s…
Victorian Literature
VICTORIAN LITERATURE Nineteenth-Century Stories by Women: An Anthology Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Selected Poems (19th C) Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Selected Poetry (1830s-1880s) (BABL Edition) In Memoriam (1850) Alfred, Lord Tennyson Illustrations of Political Economy (1832-34) Harriet Martineau Life in the Sick-Room (1844) Harriet Martineau Autobiography (1877) Harriet Martineau Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832) Frances Trollope Factory…
A Serious Occupation
This anthology of literary criticism by Victorian women of letters brings together a wealth of difficult-to-find writings. Originally published from the 1830s through the 1890s, the essays concern a range of topics including poetry, fiction, non-fiction prose, the roles of literature and of criticism, topical reviews of major works, and retrospectives of major authors. Together,…
Instructional Treatise from A Book for Governesses
The Half-Caste The following is an excerpt from Appendix C of our recently published The Half-Caste by Dinah Mulock Craik, edited by Melissa Edmundson. [volume editor’s note] The social and financial status of the Victorian governess was a topic of debate throughout the nineteenth century…Emily Peart’s A Book for Governesses (1868) provides an example of the many…